Brad
Keselowski helped add some spark (and suds) to the finish of the season as he
beat five-time champion Jimmie Johnson to win the title. However, the number of
memorable races can probably be counted on one hand.
Here’s
the breakdown of this year’s ratings, which includes the Budweiser Shootout and
Sprint All-Star Race. It does not include the annual “You Rate the Race” event,
which this season was at Kentucky Speedway.
5
Stars: 5 races
4
Stars: 10 races
3
Stars: 8 races
2
Stars: 10 races
1
Star: 4 races
This
year had the most 1 Star races in the history of Monday Morning Crew Chief, and
the number of 5 Star races dropped from eight to five.
Let’s
revisit some of the most memorable races of the season. Click on the links to see the rating for each race mentioned.
We’ll
start with Daytona Speedweeks, which included a very exciting Budweiser Shootout and bizarre Daytona 500. Kyle Busch drove through turns 3 and 4
sideways early in the shootout, sending sparks flying from his car. The damage
wasn’t enough to slow him down, though, and he came back to win the race by a
few feet ahead of Tony Stewart at the finish line in a race that started the
season with a 5 Star Rating.
The
Daytona 500 was definitely the strangest of the season, and perhaps one of the
strangest in the history of the sport. Rain postponed the race until not only
Monday, but Monday night in primetime. Busch sent sparks flying in the
shootout, but Juan Pablo Montoya did him one better by crashing into a jet
dryer under caution. The impact created an explosion and fire in Turn 3 that
put the race under a red flag. Matt Kenseth ended up winning the race that got
a 3 Star Rating because of the day-and-a-half rain delay.
Once
the series left Daytona, the long green-flag runs set in. The racing was
remarkably clean, which is good, but the drivers stayed spread out enough on
tracks such as Phoenix, Fontana, Texas and even Richmond that any excitement
from Speedweeks or the previous season had disappeared. Just six races
following Speedweeks received a rating higher than 3 Stars until the series
went back to Daytona in July for a 5 Star race.
The
second half of the season started to gain momentum as drivers such as Kasey
Kahne and Jeff Gordon battled back from early season troubles to make the race.
Kahne grabbed a wild-card spot, and Gordon snuck by Busch by one point to claim
the 10th and final Chase spot based on points. That final regular-season race at Richmond received a 4 Star Rating, and Clint Bowyer took
home the trophy.
Johnson
won another Brickyard 400 this year, his fourth, but the race was less than
thrilling in part because of his dominance. It received a 2 Star Rating.
However,
things got interesting two weeks later at Watkins Glen as Keselowski and Marcos
Ambrose slide through oil as Busch wrecked on the final lap. Keselowski and
Ambrose had the best final-lap battle of the season, and Ambrose came out on
top to win for the second year in a row on the road course. That final lap
bumped the race to a 4 Star Rating.
The
late-season fireworks first showed up at the, once again, newly reconfigured
Bristol Motor Speedway during the August night race. The shaved top groove
brought back the old-style beating and banging, although this time at the top
of the racetrack. Stewart and Kenseth crashed while battling for the lead, and
Stewart threw his helmet at Kenseth’s car, bouncing it off the hood of
Kenseth’s #17. Danica Patrick also wrecked and angrily shook her finger at
Regan Smith. Denny Hamlin ended up winning the 5 Star Race. He won again the
next week at Atlanta and a month later at New Hampshire, but too many
mechanical problems ended his championship run.
Once
the Chase began, Keselowski took charge by winning at Chicago and Dover,
neither of which were particularly action-packed races. They both got 2 Star
Ratings.
The
action-packed Chase race this season was at Phoenix. Kevin Harvick rose from
the desert dust to win his first race of the season, but he was a mere footnote
to the craziness of that 5 Star afternoon. Gordon and Clint Bowyer battled late
in the race, and Gordon cut a tire from the battle and crashed. He then waited
for Bowyer to come back around the track and intentionally wrecked him.
Bowyer’s pit crew was waiting for Gordon when he drove back to the garage, and
they immediately jumped him, inciting one of the largest brawls the sport had
seen in years. Patrick also played a hand in this crazy race. She wrecked as
the field came to the white flag, put down oil in Turn 4 coming to the finish
line, and a half-dozen cars piled up as they crossed the line.
That
all set the stage for the championship race at Homestead. Keselowski came into
the race with a 20-point lead of Johnson and qualified third to Johnson’s 10th.
Johnson made a run to the front that night and might have won the title until a
loose lug nut penalty cost him time on the track and a problem in the drivetrain
sent him to the garage early, effectively handing Keselowski the championship.
This
year marked the end of the Car of Tomorrow body style NASCAR introduced in
2007. A new model will be used next year. As is the case with every new model,
NASCAR officials say it will race better than the previous version. That wasn’t
the case the last time around, but at least the new cars look better.
Next
year will also have its fair share of new drivers with new teams. Most notably,
Kenseth will move to the #20 car, while Joey Logano takes over the #22 ride.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will fill the #17 car, and Kurt Busch will continue to try
and revive his career in the #78 car, formerly driven by Smith.
The
2012 season had its exciting and interesting moments. Let’s just hope there are
more in 2013.
